Ozone production in oxygen by means of F2-laser irradiation at ?=157.6 nm

Measurement and modeling of ozone and nitrogen oxides produced by laser breakdown in oxygen-nitrogen atmospheres

The production of ozone nad nitrogen oxides was studied during multiple laser breakdown in oxygen-nitrogen mixtures at atmospheric pressure. About 2000 laser shots at 10(10) W cm-2 were delivered into a sealed reaction chamber. The chamber with a long capillary was designed to measure absorption of O3, NO, and NO2 as a function of the number of laser shots. The light source for absorption measurements was the continuum radiation emitted by the plasma during the first 0.2 microsecond of its evolution. A kinetic model was developed that encompassed the principal chemical reactions between the major atmospheric components and the products of laser breakdown. In the model, the laser plasma was treated as a source of nitric oxide and atomic oxygen, whose rates of production were calculated using measured absorption by NO, NO2, and O3. The calculated concentration profiles for NO, NO2, and O3 were in good agreement with measured profiles over a time scale of 0-200 s. The steady-state concentration of ozone was measured in a flow cell in air. For a single breakdown in air, the estimated steady-state yield of ozone was 2 x 10(12) molecules, which agreed with the model prediction. This study can be of importance for general understanding of laser plasma chemistry and for elucidating the nature of spectral interferences and matrix effects that may take place in applied spectrochemical analysis.

Unseeded velocity measurement by ozone tagging velocimetry

Ozone tagging velocimetry is developed for unseeded velocity measurement of air flows. An ozone line is photochemically created by an ArF excimer laser. After a fixed time delay the ozone line is imaged with a KrF excimer laser sheet (248 nm) that photodissociates the ozone and produces vibrationally excited O(2). The O(2) is excited by the same 248-nm light through the Schumann-Runge band, B (3)Sigma(u)(-)(upsilon' =0, 2) ? X (3)Sigma(g)(-)(upsilon'' = 6, 7). An intensified CCD camera records the O(2) fluorescence from the initial and the final line positions to permit the velocity profile along the line to be determined.